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Parks / Yellowstone

When to visit
Yellowstone.

Busiest monthJuly941K visits
Quietest monthNovember21K visits
Warmest monthJuly71°F average high
Wettest monthFebruary3.4" of precipitation

The park drew an average of 4.2M recreation visits a year over 2016–2025. July is the busiest month at 22.1% of the year's visits, and November the quietest — 45.3× fewer people.

Crowds

July averages 940,507 recreation visits against 20,782 in November. Visit counts are the National Park Service's own monthly totals for the whole park, so unlike the weather figures below they describe every entrance and every trailhead at once.

Conditions through the year

July is the warmest month at 8,123 feet, averaging a daily high of 71°F, and January the coldest at 20°F with lows near 9°F. February is the wettest at 3.4 inches, July the driest at 1.1.

Daylight runs from 8h 54m in December to 15h 30m in June, a difference of 6h 36m of usable time in a day.

Snow shows up in every month except July and August. That is snowfall at the grid cell, not road or trail status — parks close roads on their own schedule and conditions, and the park's own alerts are the only authority on what is open.

Read the temperatures this way

Those temperatures come from a reanalysis grid cell centred at 8,123 feet. A park that spans a range of elevations is warmer in some places and colder in others than one cell can show, and most parks span a wide one. Read the month-to-month shape — which months run warm, wet or snowy relative to each other — rather than any single figure as the temperature you will meet at a given trailhead.

Every month

MonthHighLowWet days Snow daysDaylightVisits
January 20° 9° 11 10 9h 18m 35,921
February 21° 10° 15 13 10h 30m 39,973
March 30° 16° 13 11 12h 0m 29,817
April 37° 21° 14 12 13h 30m 55,768
May 46° 29° 11 7 14h 48m 433,230
June 59° 38° 9 2 15h 30m 796,284
July 71° 46° 8 0 15h 6m 940,507
August 69° 47° 8 0 14h 0m 837,365
September 60° 41° 8 2 12h 30m 757,664
October 43° 29° 11 8 11h 0m 271,564
November 31° 20° 12 10 9h 36m 20,782
December 22° 11° 13 12 8h 54m 28,575

Averages over 10 years, 2016–2025. Wet days count days with at least 0.04″ of precipitation; snow days at least 0.4″ of snowfall.

There is no best month here

This page does not pick one. Crowds and weather alone cannot: in the desert parks the emptiest months are empty because the heat is dangerous, and in the mountain parks the quietest ones are quiet because the roads are shut. What a month has usually been like and what it will be like on your date are also different claims — for the second, the planner reads the live seven-day forecast and the park's own notices.

ParkReady is independent and is not affiliated with the National Park Service. Road, trail and campground status comes from the park, and the park is the only authority on it.

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